FF deleted this?

This is supposed to be chapter 2! How did I miss this? IDK.

CHAPTER 2 Day 5

She kept hearing voices in the darkness. Voices that made her muscles tense, her soul quake and her heart freeze in terror. Then voices that were soft, safe, familiar. They began to mix until she couldn't tell which was which. Then came blissful darkness with no sound. The next time she heard the voices she began to cry, unsure if they were real or a dream or a nightmare. She hoped it was all just a nightmare. She heard a shout then felt a hard object collide with her skull, heard the sound of a shrill but oddly muffled scream and a sickening cracking-crunching sound. Then the darkness mixed with silence again.

"She's in and out of consciousness."

"Even if she regains full consciousness," Sisko was now standing next to the bio-bed he'd been keeping vigil at for days, "will she be able to speak to us?"

Sisko was staring at her blackened jaw. Julian had been able to physically stabilize the bones, but without any technology that would work on the girl, everything would have to heal naturally.

"Personally," Julian's body was slumped in a small chair, as he answered Sisko from his spot across the room, "I'm quite grateful for the bouts of unconsciousness, as not only does our technology have no effect, neither do any of my pain medications."

Sisko looked at him, stunned. "None of them?"

He shook his head. "Nothing."

"It doesn't make sense." S

isko let a finger drag across the girls skin that felt oddly hot to the touch. Even he could tell that her heart rate and pulse was elevated, which usually indicated an individual in a great deal of pain.

"None of this does."

A heavy sigh escaped Julian's lips before he could stop himself. He felt weighted down by this new patient, even shrouded in mystery even he the ousted station lover-of-mysteries, was heavily tired of the reality of the inadequacy of his technology and knowledge to help this girl.

"Has Dax been able to find a match for the girl in the federation database?"

Feeling like a failure as well, but for different reasons, Ben shook his head. "This is maddening."

Julian sighed again in agreement, realizing that Sisko did not possess the additional burdens of what Bashir knew about the girl. It was what was currently keeping him from sleeping.

"I understand." Bashir's voice was soft, but hollow and scratchy as if he hadn't been sleeping. Sisko suspected that he hadn't been, and likely had been sleeping in the infirmary for the past week, but more likely trying in vain to come up with a way to be able to give better medical care to the girl.

"How long will it take for her worst injuries to heal on their own?"

With obvious shame at his perceived failure Julian even more reluctantly answered, "Approximately eight weeks."

As Julian watched Sisko make stilted and ultimately futile attempts to make the girl more comfortable on the bio-bed, he sighed again audibly, feeling like he was just watching his failure at being a doctor continue to play out before his eyes. And honestly, he didn't want Sisko around much longer to witness it, too.

"It's best not to disturb her sir," Julian reminded him. "Sleep or unconscious from pain is far better for her now than to be awake."

Ben Sisko looked at the young doctor quizzically, and after deciding the man needed as much a break as he himself did, made his way to the exit..

"Thank you, Doctor."

Notes: The more I write of this oral story, the more horrified I am, and the more amazed and in awe of what this child was forced to endure. And as I write this story out, it's easy for me to read between the lines and see the actual real life clues embedded in this story that was believed to be "just a story" by its creator for so long. Just...in awe. Believe women. And, believe children. Laws that actually punish perpetrators would be good too, instead of letting 99% of those reported to walk free. Cough, but enough about me and my day job hell.